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A History of India in Test Matches at Trent Bridge

17 August 18words: Gav Squires

India come to Nottingham 2-0 in the five match test series but they won handily last time they were in town, in the one day international. That was in a one-day international though so what kind of record do the visitors have at Trent Bridge in the longer form of the game?

India first came to Trent Bridge in 1959 for the first test of a chastising tour. Batting first, England scored an impressive total of 402 with a century for captain Peter May and 50s for Ken Barrington, Godfrey Evans and, on debut, Martin Horton. With such a good score on the board, it was time for the England quick bowlers to shine - Brian Statham and Alan Moss taking two wickets apiece while Fred Trueman took four. Indian opener Pankaj Roy did score 50 but India reached just 206 and were invited to follow on. Trueman took another two wickets and Statham 5/44 and even though Roy (49) top scored again, India were condemned to defeat by an innings and 59 runs.

1996

It would be 37 years before India returned to Trent Bridge and this time they batted first but were soon reduced to 33-2. That brought together Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar who put on 255 for the second wicket - Ganguly scoring 136 and Tendulkar 177. Rahul Dravid hit 84, batting at number 7 as India posted a total of 521 all out. Chris Lewis, who had been playing for Nottinghamshire the summer before was the pick of the English attack with 3 wickets. In reply, England's openers, captain Michael Atherton (160) and Alec Stewart (50), put on 130 runs for the first wicket. Future England captain Nasser Hussain scored a century from number three and future Notts player mark Ealham scored a 50 on debut, underlining his claim to be yet another of the new Ian Bothams that England have had over the years. England batted into the fifth day, finishing on 564 and all but guaranteeing the match would finish in a draw. Ganguly would hit 48 in the second innings, which along with three wickets would earn him the man of the match award and Tendulkar scored 74.

2002

It would be another high scoring affair six years later and this time Ganguly was captaining the India side. He scored 68 as the visitors batted first but Virender Sehwag was the pick of the batters, hitting 106. Future heroes of the 2005 Ashes Matthew Hoggard (4/105) and Steve Harmison (3/57) on debut were the pick of the bowlers. India's total of 357 was soon made to look inadequate as Michael Vaughan scored 197. Backed up with 50s from Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart, and 94 not out from Craig White, underlining his claim to be yet another of the new Ian Bothams have had over the years, England ended on a mammoth 617. England took two early wickets giving them a sniff of victory but India's middle order of Dravid (115), Tendulkar (92) and Ganguly (99) saw the match finish as a draw.

2007

2007 would see India secure their first series win I England since 1986 and Trent Bridge was the decisive test match. India won the toss and put England in to bat - Zaheer Kahn took four wickets and Anil Kumble got three as England tumbled out for 198. Dinesh Karthik (77) and Wasim Jaffer (62) put on 147 for the first wicket while Tendulkar (91) and Ganguly (79) again enjoyed their time in Nottingham. England's biggest mistake during the Indian innings was not to do with poor fielding or average bowling though - an incident involving jelly beans fired up the visitors, especially Kahn who took five wickets in England's second innings. England batted better though with Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood scoring 50s and skipper Michael Vaughan a century. However, a total of 355 left the visitors needed just 73 to win the match. Chris Tremlett took three Indian wickets but they still cruised to a seven wicket victory.

2011

Four years later, India arrived in England on the back of a 5-0 win two-and-a-half years earlier in India. Having lost the first test at Lords, the visitors hit back in Nottingham, reducing England to 124-8 before 68 from Stuart Broad took England to 221. Praveen Kumar, Ishant Sharma and Shanthakumaran Sreesanth each took three wickets. In reply, Dravid scored 117 and Vangipurappu Laxman and Yuraj Singh hit 50s but Stuart Broad took six wickets, underling his claim to be yet another of the new Ian Bothams that England have had over the years. Leading by 67 after the first innings, India were then involved in some controversy - Ian Bell had assumed that the ball was dead on the final ball before lunch on the third day and had stopped running. He was subsequently run out but over the interval, India rescinded their appeal and Bell would go on to make 159. it probably didn't make that much of a difference as England outclassed India - Kevin Pietersen (63), Eoin Morgan (70), Matt Prior (73) and Tim Bresnan (90) all hit half-centuries and Broad added another 44 as England scored 544. Tendulkar scored 56 but five wickets for Bresnan, underlining his claim to be yet another of the new Ian Bothams, saw England claim the win inside four days, a victory that would see them take the top spot in the test match rankings for the first time since the official rankings began in 2003.

2014

India returned in 2014 and their opener Murali Vijay set the tone for the match, hitting 146 out of a total of 457 as the visitors batted first. It was the lower order batters who really demonstrated the ease of batting though - after Mahendra Singh Dhoni had hit 82, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami both hit 50s. Current England skipper Joe Root scored an unbeaten 154 in reply but again the tail-enders had all the fun with Broad scoring 47 and "the Lancashire Lara" Jimmy Anderson hitting his test best of 81. Kumar took five wickets but England totalled 496, taking a slender first innings lead. Second time around, Vijay hit another 50 as did future Notts player Cheteshwar Pujara but it was Stuart Binny scoring 78 from number 8 and Kumar hitting 63 batting at 9 that stole the show. Three quick wickets at the start of the final day's play had given England the faintest hope of a win but England's highlight ended up being Alastair Cook doing his best impression of Bob Willis and then even taking his first test wicket.

That draw left India's record at Trent Bridge reading P6 W1 D3 L2. Whether they can improve on that record will depend on how much the ball swings - they struggled against the moving ball at Lords and Jimmy Anderson has taken 60 wickets at Trent bridge, more than any other player in test matches. Captain Virat Kohli has been the pick of the batters for the visitors but a back injury hampered him in the last game - India really need him to be back at his best if they have any hope of saving the series.